Chapter 146 Counterattack

Those men in black never dreamed that they would lose three men the moment they met their target.

Seeing two young girls carrying long knives and sticks, menacingly charging from the right side of the carriage towards the rear, while two men in black were responsible for blocking them from escaping, Xie Wanniang and the others were stunned for a moment before suddenly coming to their senses.

They didn't have time to think about their three companions; instinctively, they raised their weapons and stabbed at Xie Wanniang and Haitang.

Xie Wanniang threw several copper coins with her left hand, sending them hurtling towards the faces of the two men.

The two men thought Xie Wanniang had launched some kind of poisoned hidden weapon, and instinctively dodged, losing the force of their weapons and slightly shifting the angle of their thrusts.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xie Wanniang and Haitang decisively struck and ended the lives of the two men.

With another thud, the two accelerated and rushed toward the left side of the carriage.

At this moment, Artest, who was struggling against three opponents and in dire straits, already had a bloody hole in his left arm.

Although he was extremely talented, he had only been practicing martial arts for a short time. Even though he kept dodging and weaving and did not give the three men a chance to surround him, he was still injured in the process.

When Xie Wanniang and Haitang arrived, the two men in black who had been carried away by the injured horses also rushed over to support their companions at top speed.

The four arrived at the battlefield at the same time. After a change of positions, the one-on-three situation became three against five, and Atai's crisis was temporarily resolved.

Xie Wanniang asked him, "Can you still fight?"

Atai nodded vigorously with a fierce expression, "Yes!"

He pointed to the man in black who had poked a bloody hole in his arm, "Leave that guy to me."

Xie Wanniang nodded, and together with Haitang, they tacitly attacked the other four people.

During the exchange of blows with knives and sticks, Xie Wanniang used the same trick again, raising her left hand and throwing out several copper coins.

Two of the four instinctively dodged to the side and behind, while the other two continued to rush forward while dodging.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xie Wanniang and Haitang swiftly and decisively dealt with the two men in black who were charging forward.

The two men in black who instinctively retreated never imagined that their instinctive action would become the catalyst for their companion's death.

Half of their companions were dealt with so quickly by Xie Wanniang and Haitang that they no longer underestimated Xie Wanniang and Haitang as they had at the beginning. That's why the two of them cautiously retreated the moment Xie Wanniang threw out her hidden weapon.

They wanted to be cautious and proceed as steadily as possible, but their two companions, who were willing to risk injury to seize any opportunity to charge forward, clearly had a different idea.

It's hard to say whether being cautious and conservative or being aggressive and charging forward is more suitable for this situation, but their lack of mutual understanding was clearly the key factor that led to their utter defeat.

The three-on-five situation turned into a three-on-three battle. Taking advantage of the brief moment when the two were stunned, Xie Wanniang and Haitang charged towards them without hesitation.

The two men turned and ran. They were spies, not suicide squads. Their forte was long-term infiltration, intelligence gathering, and transmission; fighting and dying for their cause was not their thing.

They ran toward the coachman who was still trying to calm the horses. Although the horse had been stabbed by Atai, the injury was not serious. They preferred to ride in the carriage and let the horse run for them rather than run on two legs.

Firstly, there were drivers on the other side of the carriage, so three against two was better than two against two. Secondly, the horses were not only faster than them, but also had better endurance.

The two were very clear-headed, but their own abilities simply couldn't keep up with their thinking.

Before they could reunite with the coachman, Xie Wanniang and Haitang had already each taken one of them down.

Haitang would slit the throat and stab the heart, killing the enemy without saying a word. Xie Wanniang, on the other hand, would strike with a blunt object; whether the enemy died or was seriously injured and unconscious depended entirely on their fate.

Anyway, hitting people with a stick won't kill them all. No matter how many of them survive, she'll send them directly to Changping and ask him to find someone to interrogate them to see what's going on.

The two dealt with the two men in black who were trying to escape, and then rushed over and knocked the coachman unconscious before he could realize something was wrong.

The injured horse had just been brought under the driver's control, which is why the driver did not immediately realize that danger was imminent.

He had just calmed the horse down and was about to turn back to help his companion when Xie Wanniang swiftly and decisively struck him on the head with a club.

He fell to the ground, and Xie Wanniang and Haitang quickly grabbed the reins and opened the carriage door to check if anyone was still hiding inside.

Once they confirmed it was safe, the two tied up the still-breathing coachman, gave him medicine, and brought him back to the side of the main road along with the carriage.

At this point, Atai had already dealt with his enemy and also tied up the two remaining enemies.

After Xie Wanniang arrived, he took the medicine from her and fed it to the two men in black who had fainted but were still barely alive.

Although Haitang was young, she was exceptionally cautious and meticulous in her actions. Even though she knew that Atai had already checked each of them, she still went to the corpses and, without taking the trouble, stabbed each of them again.

Xie Wanniang didn't stop her; it was better to put in a little more effort than to have any fish slip through the net.

The three of them put the barely alive coachman and the two men in black into their own carriage. Xie Wanniang then took Xiaomei, who was finally allowed to get out of the carriage, and gave Atai and the horse some simple treatment for their wounds.

"Let's go, let's take the prisoners to the village first." Xie Wanniang sat on the shaft of her own carriage and took over as the driver from Atai.

Atai then led the horse brought by the men in black, making do with letting it transport the prisoners to the village.

Fortunately, the barren mountain that Xie Wanniang bought, and the small village she had the ten people build at the foot of the mountain, were not far from where they encountered the men in black.

It took the group about 15 minutes to drive the horse-drawn carriage to the village.

Upon hearing the commotion, the ten retired soldiers immediately grabbed their prepared herb-gathering tools and went out of the house.

Everyone smiled and was about to exchange a few pleasantries with Xie Wanniang and the others when they saw Atai, with a red bandage on his arm and a solemn expression, leading an injured horse slowly toward them.

The smiles on the ten men's faces vanished instantly. They strode towards Atai and Haitang beside him, asking, "What's going on? Where's the girl?"

“I’m here.” Xie Wanniang waved and got off the carriage behind. “We were ambushed on our way here. The survivors are in the carriage that Atai is driving.”